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. . . I'm still waiting for one of the administrators to sweep in with a dramatic warning to all the people accusing the ACC of being a cult that they could could(!) potentially be blaspheming . . .

Interested Sister,

I'm not sure I would equate wrongly classifying a group as a cult to blasphemy. Of course, there are different ways to define "cult", and not everyone agrees what is a cult and what is not a cult.

Is the ACC a cult in the sense of "A system or community of religious worship and ritual"? Definately. Is the ACC a cult in the sense of "An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric...interest". Probably. Is the ACC a cult in the sense of "A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader". No, with a couple side notes:

1. Some of the our distinctives (in terms of thology and practice) are quite much in common with some groups that would be classified as cults (Jehovah's Witness, etc.) by evangelical Christains.

2. Some leaders (for the record: I'm not claiming that all or many are like this) have had a leadership style which would, from the perspective of an uninitiated observer, be in many respects indistinguishable from that of a cult leader (by the last definition I mentioned).

Of course, as you have insightfully eluded to, much of what the Bible teaches may be misidentified by some as cultic. If people call that "cultic", so be it. However, unfortunately, in our case, some of our more esoteric social practices (that are non-Biblical) and policies and fearful and controlling (in the un-Christain sense) leadership attitudes have often lead people to label us as a cult, not necessarily our obedience to the Bible.

For example, I do not look down on someone who would label a church that does the following as "cultic":

A. A church that will only show (not make a copy of) the overview summary report of Elder meetings for their individual members.

*or*

B. A church that won't let their members publically share their ministers sermons on the internet, for fear of who might get their hands on them.

Now, here's a thing we should all consider: If we feel we are misidentified as a cult, then we should look for ways (without comprimising Biblical truth of course) that we can exemplify openess, less fear, less blatently reactionary, communicative, less secretive, authoritarian only in the sense of God-ordained authority, etc. .


I don't believe its all that hard. If we lessen our fear of criticism, clearly communicate our ideas, be open, do things in public when possible, stop putting people on discipline for things that are not sinful, teach our members to be discerning about outside information rather than frowning up everything without reference to its content, etc., we would go a long way to demonstrating that we are truly not a cult, but rather an group (perhaps escoteric) that is seeking to obey God.